Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev reported killed

The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service today said that Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev has been killed, Russian news agencies reported.

FSB head Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin that Basayev had been killed overnight in Ingushetia, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

Patrushev told Putin that the Chechen rebels had hoped to “put political pressure on the Russian leadership” during the Group of Eight summit later this week, which Putin is chairing.

Putin called Basayev’s killing “deserved retribution” for terror attacks in Beslan and Budyonnovsk, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Basayev claimed responsibility for those attacks. The September 2004 attack on the Beslan school, in which 331 victims were killed, in particular shocked Russia and divided the rebel movement.

Patrushev said that the operation to eliminate Basayev, in which many other rebels were killed, was “thanks to the operative position abroad, especially in those countries where arms were collected.”